Back in early October, Nintendo announced their "Play on Wii" line of games -- a series of old
GameCube titles that would get re-released on the Wii with added
waggle controls and a budget price. Now according to Siliconera, who got their hands on a Nintendo document showing a few planned releases in 2009, it's been revealed that
the first two titles confirmed for release in North America will be
the original Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis.

The document shows both titles listed, but gives no specific
release dates for either one. In Japan, Pikmin is launching on
December 25, with Donkey Kong Jungle Beat launching before it on December 11, with both costing roughly
$35. Oddly, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat isn't listed on this document at
all, indicating a U.S. release doesn't seem to be coming any time soon.

End 1up.com story

My thoughts on this are as follows:

Many people commented on this article complaining that they wished
Nintendo would focus on making new games instead of porting old ones.

Obviously Nintendo is making new games, but as always, they are
slow to show anything until way into the dev cycle. We know they are
working on new Mario, Zelda, Pikmin and more... but in the mean
time, they have smaller teams doing these quick ports which I see as
positive for a couple of reasons. Sure, we may have already played
them being the Nintendo faithful, but the Gamecube didn't sell as
well as the Wii, meaning many of it's best games didn't get the
attention they deserved. By re releasing them for the Wii at budget
prices, they introduce classics like Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis
to the new gaming masses.

And I fully expect a new Wii version of Pikmin and Mario Tennis
sometime down the road. But I don't expect to see them before the
end of Summer 09, if not later. So having a Wii control enabled
Mario Tennis sounds good to me.

As for Pikmin, I wish it were Pikmin 2, as I felt it was the better
of the two games, mostly thanks to getting rid of the rigid time
limit imposed in the first game. But I suppose they will end up
releasing both, and it makes more sense to start with the first.

If this new rerelease line does well and continues, I'd like to see
Luigi's Mansion get the treatment, as well as Eternal Darkness,
Metroid Prime and Zelda Windwaker. Maybe Chibi Robo.

My other wishlist re release is already happening. They are working
on a compilation of Factor 5's Rogue Squadran series for the Wii, so
we know that is coming.

Don't get me wrong. I want new games too. But they are coming. And
Nintendo is known for long developement times on their top titles.
So I think they are helping appease old and new fans, mostly new,
with this new program. And hoping that third party companies fill in
the other gaps. And I've heard that in 09 several companies,
including Ubisoft, EA and Activision, have all stated that they are
working on putting stronger quality titles out for the Wii and less
ports and shovelware. So time will tell, but if that is true, we
should see lots of good games hitting the Wii in time.